Just Like That

"..."

Sasuke Uchiha watched the Watermelon Jonin suddenly rush in, discover that Kakashi was still alive, then cry and laugh, excitedly shout that he was going to run 200 laps around Konoha to celebrate, and finally leave without warning... He was utterly speechless.

"Are Konoha's Jonin all this unreliable?" a voice suddenly sounded beside him, making Sasuke jump. He turned to look. It was Wu Yu.

Wu Yu smiled. "—by, Sasuke Uchiha."

I'm really sorry, colleagues. Gai and I have ruined your reputations... Hatake Kakashi thought silently as he lay in bed with his eyes closed. Sakura Haruno dampened a towel with warm water and placed it over his eyes.

"How strange!" a voice suddenly called from behind them, startling Sasuke and Wu Yu. They turned around. It was Naruto.

Naruto Uzumaki held a framed photo, staring at the Uchiha Crest on the back of Sasuke's shirt.

Pointing at the same crest on the shirt of the boy wearing Goggles in the photo—it was embroidered in a different place and was much smaller—he asked in surprise, "Is this friend of Kakashi-sensei's related to Sasuke?"

The photo in Naruto's hands showed Team Minato in their youth: Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha, Rin Nohara, and their supervising Jonin, Minato Namikaze.

"Idiot, don't go touching the teacher's personal things!" Sakura Haruno punched Naruto Uzumaki, then couldn't help leaning over to look at the photo herself.

Sasuke Uchiha only glanced at the young Obito in the photo and paid him no mind.

Wu Yu glanced at Kakashi, who had a towel over his eyes and was lying still like a corpse, then pointed at the Jonin with spiky yellow hair in the photo. "How strange! Am I the only one who thinks this guy looks—especially his hairstyle—just like Naruto?"

"Does he?" Naruto scratched his head and squinted at Minato Namikaze in the photo.

"Now that you mention it..."

Sakura Haruno examined the photo closely. Even Sasuke couldn't help taking another look. Then she exclaimed, "Huh? Is this the Fourth Hokage? Kakashi, was he your team leader back then?"

"The Fourth Hokage?!" Sakura and Naruto were both shocked.

"..." Kakashi could no longer keep silent. He took the now-cool towel off his eyes, opened his right eye, and stared at the ceiling. "Yes. But back then, he wasn't Hokage yet. He was just our teacher, Minato-sensei."

The room fell into an odd silence... Though perhaps that was just Wu Yu's imagination.

Sakura and Sasuke were surprised by the revelation, but neither of them was particularly curious about the Fourth Hokage. Besides, the Fourth Hokage had died a hero while defending the village, so they didn't press for details.

Naruto was both startled and awed. He silently returned the photo to its place. The Fourth Hokage, the person he had sworn to surpass, suddenly felt so "within reach" in that moment. Naruto could practically feel himself burning up.

Kakashi, meanwhile, seemed a little emo...

Wu Yu noticed that Kakashi didn't do anything to stop them from discovering clues that might let them "reveal the truth" about Naruto Uzumaki being the son of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

He just lay there, wallowing in his misery all by himself, like a scarecrow in a field, looking listless and drained of life.

All it would take was one sentence from Wu Yu to completely overturn Naruto's world.

But Wu Yu chose not to say it.

He wasn't some real blabbermouth who spoke without thinking. Tsunade would learn about the Mysterious Clone because it couldn't be kept secret anymore, so it was better to be honest. As for Sasuke, Wu Yu knew that whatever else the kid might be, he wouldn't blab. The cool, aloof type was already a man of few words.

As a transmigrator, knowing the characters' true personalities was a major advantage, whatever else he might lack.

Wu Yu wouldn't go out of his way to tell Sakura Haruno, Kakashi, or the others about the Mysterious Clone, but he was prepared to accept it if they found out.

Naruto's situation was different from the Mysterious Clone's. It involved the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, so it wasn't something to meddle with lightly. Wu Yu had been around Naruto for so long and had never once thought of having Mysterious Kaguya extract the Nine-Tails Chakra from him. If anything, he'd repeatedly told Mysterious Kaguya to calm down, calm down, and calm down again—and wipe the drool off her mouth.

With Naruto's personality, if Wu Yu told him that his dad was the Fourth Hokage, he might turn around and confront the Third in person. Just imagining it gave Wu Yu a headache.

Wu Yu didn't know why the Third and the others had hidden Naruto's identity, and it wasn't his place to interfere. But it certainly wasn't something a little Genin like him should let slip.

So, sensing the strange atmosphere in Kakashi's room, Wu Yu spread his hands and said he was going to the bathroom.

"Whoosh..."

Wu Yu went into the bathroom and turned on every tap he could to make some noise.

Since he had nothing better to do, he took a little break and formed Hand Seals.

Right Mysterious Clone, activate!

With a soft poof, a cloud of white smoke appeared in front of him. A solid form took shape in the smoke, and Wu Yu heard a voice he recognized: "Huh? Isn't this my bathroom?"

Huh?

Wu Yu froze, meeting the three eyes of Right Mysterious Kakashi as the smoke cleared.

"Could it really be that coincidental?" Wu Yu asked in a low voice.

"Looks like it really is."

Right Mysterious Kakashi crouched on the toilet lid and casually pulled a copy of Icha Icha Paradise from his pouch. Noticing the look on his original self's face, he slipped it back into his pouch and said calmly, "Sorry. I'm used to this environment... ahem."

So he was a seasoned pro, huh?

Wu Yu was speechless. Then he thought of something and lifted Right Mysterious Kakashi's Forehead Protector, revealing his left eye. He was startled to find a dark, ordinary eye—not a Sharingan!

"Huh?" Right Mysterious Kakashi noticed the difference too.

Wu Yu murmured, "Looks like the Mysterious Clone can't copy parts that don't belong to your 'original self'... And once it removes the 'foreign object' that is the Sharingan, it'll automatically fill in your left eye."

"My body hasn't felt this light in ages." Right Mysterious Kakashi blinked his left eye.

"..."

Wu Yu glanced at the air beside him.

If so, why did Mysterious Kaguya have a Rinnegan on her forehead? Wasn't that the Ten-Tails Eye she had only gained after merging with the God Tree?

Could it be that Kaguya had merged so thoroughly with the God Tree that the Mysterious Clone counted them as a single entity?

"Wu Yu, are you done yet?" Naruto called loudly from outside. "Kakashi-sensei says he's treating us to a meal!"

"Stay here and write down all one thousand techniques you supposedly copied. I'll check them tonight," Wu Yu instructed Right Mysterious Kakashi in a low voice.

Ignoring the clone's dead-fish stare, weren't clones made to be worked to the bone? Wu Yu turned off the taps and quietly opened the door.

"He's laid up and can't move. How's he going to treat us?" Wu Yu returned to Kakashi's bedroom and joked as he joined the others.